The International Olympic Committee announced Thursday that transgender women will be barred from competing in female category events starting with the 2028 Los Angeles Games. Eligibility for women's events will now be determined by a mandatory SRY gene screening, a one-time test that detects the presence or absence of the sex-determining region Y gene typically found on the Y chromosome. The test can be conducted through a saliva sample, cheek swab, or blood sample. IOC President Kirsty Coverty, the first female president in the organization's 132-year history, said the policy was "foundationally based in science and led by medical experts."
The new rules apply to the Olympic Games, Youth Olympics, and Games qualifiers across all sports. They do not apply retroactively to past competitions and do not affect grassroots or recreational sports programs. The IOC previously allowed individual sports federations to set their own transgender eligibility rules after 2021, but Coventry reversed that approach immediately upon taking office in June, announcing the organization would establish a uniform policy.
Any athlete with a positive SRY gene test will be ineligible for female competition. Athletes who test positive for the SRY gene remain eligible for male categories and open categories. Coventry stated that "at the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat," and therefore "it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category."
A systematic review published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine analyzed 52 studies involving 6,485 participants and reached a different conclusion than the IOC's reasoning. The research found that while transgender women exhibited higher lean mass than cisgender women, "their physical fitness was comparable" and "current evidence is mostly low certainty and has heterogeneous quality, but does not support theories of inherent athletic advantages for transgender women over cisgender women."
The IOC's 10-page policy document contains few citations or links to supporting research. Dr. Jane Thornton, a former Olympic rower and the IOC's medical and scientific director, was involved in the decision-making, but the analysis she presented "has not been made public." The policy asserts that genetic screening for sex "does not create significant problems in practice," despite the IOC itself abandoning SRY testing in 2004 due to practical problems with the method.
No woman who transitioned from being born male competed at the 2024 Paris Summer Games. Weightlifter Laurel Hubbard of New Zealand competed at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 without winning a medal. It is unclear how many transgender women, if any, are competing at Olympic level. Before the Paris Games, three top-tier sports—track and field, swimming, and cycling—had already excluded transgender women who had experienced male puberty.
The Australian Olympic Committee backed the new rules, with AOC President Ian Chesterman saying the policy "provides clarity for elite female athletes who compete at the highest level and demonstrates a commitment to fairness, safety and integrity." LA 2028 Chef de Mission Anna Meares said she admired Coventry's leadership while acknowledging "the pain this decision will cause some athletes."
Pride Cup called it a measure that "will make all women targets for harassment and abuse" and warned that investigations often involve "coerced medical exams, disclosure of intimate health information, and media scrutiny that can permanently harm the person." Canadian human rights lawyer and former Olympic swimmer Nikki Dryden warned the policy "creates a culture where someone like a coach, an official, or even another parent, feels entitled to question whether your daughter looks female enough to belong." Paula Gerber, a Monash human rights law expert, said the mandatory testing contravenes the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and reinforces "harmful stereotypes and erode progress toward substantive gender equality."
The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, which represents more than 2,000 pro-LGBTQIA+ organizations worldwide, questioned whether the policy protects women's sport at all. Co-secretary-general Kimberly Frost asked: "Instead, the IOC decided to create more scrutiny on the body of any woman who would have just wanted to play the game she loves, from the Olympics, trickling down to every playground. How is this protection?"
The International Olympic Committee announced Thursday that transgender women will be barred from competing in female category events starting with the 2028 Los Angeles Games. Eligibility for women's events will now be determined by a mandatory SRY gene screening, a one-time test that detects the presence or absence of the sex-determining region Y gene typically found on the Y chromosome. The test can be conducted through a saliva sample, cheek swab, or blood sample. IOC President Kirsty Coventry, the first female president in the organization's 132-year history, said the policy was "foundationally based in science and led by medical experts."
The new rules apply to the Olympic Games, Youth Olympics, and Games qualifiers across all sports. They do not apply retroactively to past competitions and do not affect grassroots or recreational sports programs. The IOC previously allowed individual sports federations to set their own transgender eligibility rules after 2021, but Coventry reversed that approach immediately upon taking office in June, announcing the organization would establish a uniform policy.
Any athlete with a positive SRY gene test will be ineligible for female competition. The IOC states that being born male creates "three significant testosterone peaks: in utero, in mini-puberty of infancy and beginning in adolescent puberty through adulthood," which gives males "individual sex-based performance advantages in sports and events that rely on strength, power and/or endurance." The policy also excludes women with differences in sex development, or DSD, except in rare cases such as complete androgen insensitivity syndrome where individuals do not benefit from testosterone's performance-enhancing effects.
Athletes who test positive for the SRY gene remain eligible for male categories and open categories. Coventry stated that "at the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat," and therefore "it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category."
A systematic review published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine last month analyzed 52 studies involving 6,485 participants and reached a different conclusion than the IOC's reasoning. The research found that while transgender women exhibited higher lean mass than cisgender women, "their physical fitness was comparable" and "current evidence is mostly low certainty and has heterogeneous quality, but does not support theories of inherent athletic advantages for transgender women over cisgender women."
The IOC's 10-page policy document contains few citations or links to supporting research. Dr. Jane Thornton, a former Olympic rower and the IOC's medical and scientific director, was involved in the decision-making, but the analysis she presented "has not been made public." The policy asserts that genetic screening for sex "does not create significant problems in practice," despite the IOC itself abandoning SRY testing in 2004 due to practical problems with the method.
No woman who transitioned from being born male competed at the 2024 Paris Summer Games. Weightlifter Laurel Hubbard of New Zealand competed at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 without winning a medal. It remains unclear how many transgender women, if any, currently compete at Olympic level. Before the Paris Games, three top-tier sports—track and field, swimming, and cycling—had already excluded transgender women who had experienced male puberty.
The Australian Olympic Committee backed the new rules, with AOC President Ian Chesterman saying the policy "provides clarity for elite female athletes who compete at the highest level and demonstrates a commitment to fairness, safety and integrity." LA 2028 Chef de Mission Anna Meares said she admired Coverty's leadership while acknowledging "the pain this decision will cause some athletes."
Human rights advocates and LGBTQIA+ groups strongly oppose the policy. Pride Cup called it a measure that "will make all women targets for harassment and abuse" and warned that investigations often involve "coerced medical exams, disclosure of intimate health information, and media scrutiny that can permanently harm the person." Canadian human rights lawyer and former Olympic swimmer Nikki Dryden warned the policy "creates a culture where someone like a coach, an official, or even another parent, feels entitled to question whether your daughter looks female enough to belong." Paula Gerber, a Monash human rights law expert, said the mandatory testing contravenes the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and reinforces "harmful stereotypes and erode progress toward substantive gender equality."
The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, which represents more than 2,000 pro-LGBTQIA+ organizations worldwide, questioned whether the policy protects women's sport at all. Co-secretary-general Kimberly Frost asked: "Instead, the IOC decided to create more scrutiny on the body of any woman who would have just wanted to play the game she loves, from the Olympics, trickling down to every playground. How is this protection?"
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